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"Oil field services firm Halliburton will plead guilty to a misdemeanor charge of destroying evidence related to the 2010 Gulf of Mexico oil spill in exchange for a fine and probation, the Justice Department said Thursday."

"Halliburton has agreed, subject to the court’s approval, to pay $200,000, the maximum-available statutory fine, and to be subject to three years of probation, the Justice Department said. The stunning development follows testimony at a civil trial earlier this year at which a former company lab manager admitted that he was asked to throw away his notes on some cement testing the company did after the spill.

It comes as a federal judge in New Orleans is weighing whether Halliburton, Transocean and BP were grossly negligent in connection with the worst offshore oil spill in U.S. history."